The written description of the boundary does not matter once it is
marked on the ground and agreed to by both parties. This is a basic
tenet of boundaryhood, often overlooked by those unfamiliar with such
issues, as apparently the lawyers and other combatants mentioned in
the article are. The Canada/Washington boundary is coincident with
the Canada/US boundary and whether this falls exactly on the 49th
parallel is irrelevant. Besides, 49th parallel according to what
datum? Surely no one would expect boundaries to change just because
the world's ellipsoid is refined.

BJB

--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "David Birch" <dbirch@c...> wrote:
> --- In BoundaryPoint@y..., Anton Sherwood <bronto@p...> wrote:
> > m donner wrote:
> > > searching today mainly for the southernmost point in oregon
> >
> > meaning the southernmost corner of the surveyed line, or what?
> >
> > i read once that the north boundary of Washington is, in some
> places,
> > hundreds of feet south of the north boundary of the United States,
> > because they are defined by separate surveys. sadly the article
> where i
> > saw this was on another subject entirely and contained no
pointers
> to
> > further info.
> >
> > --
> > Anton Sherwood
>
> I've just found this article which has some info:
>
> http://hotwired.lycos.com/netizen/96/53/special4a.html
>
> David